BENGALURU: Over 6,700 employees left unicorn start-ups between August 2023 to August 2024, and on average, unicorns had an attrition rate of 4.5% during the period, an analysis by market intelligence platform PrivateCircle Research found.
As many as 116 unicorns (including newer additions such as Moneyview, Ather and Rapido) in the country employed 4,10,829 people in August 2024 as compared to 4,17,561 employees recorded in the same month previous year. The analysis includes employees of whom provident fund contributions were done.
However, unicorns continue to be large employers in the country. Murali Logananthan, Director of Research at PrivateCircle said, “We find that the compounded revenue growth among most unicorns has been in high double digits over two years and yet these unicorns have maintained stable employee numbers.”
“This signals efficient usage of human capital even during periods of high growth. The monthly net change in unicorn workforce has stayed between -0.9% and 2.5% during the selected time period,” he added.
Across all major startup hubs, Delhi NCR saw the maximum additions in the total number of employees between August 2023 and August 2024. It hired 18,554 employees and some of the mass recruiters from Delhi-NCR included PolicyBazaar, Blinkit, and Zomato.
The second-highest employee additions were recorded in Chennai-based unicorns (4,785). Bengaluru-based unicorns during the period recruited only 2,384 employees.
Mumbai unicorns saw a net decrease of 7,024 employees from the cumulative workforce. Pune (-643) and Hyderabad (-66) have recorded a fall in their overall workforce numbers, as per the platform’s research.